NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A New York billboard erected by an anti-abortion group that focused on high African-American abortion rates has been taken down, authorities said.
A spokesman for Lamar Advertising of Louisiana said it was taken down because of public safety concerns, CNN reported Friday.
Lamar's Hal Kilshaw said workers in a restaurant in the building featuring the billboard were being harassed by patrons objecting to it, and a protest scheduled for Friday led to the company's decision to remove it.
The sign, paid for by the organization Life Always, featured an African-American girl and read: "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb."
"They're attacking women for choosing abortion while simultaneously destroying family planning," Mary Alice Carr of NARAL Pro-Choice America said before the billboard was taken down. "Their hypocrisy is as large and as obnoxious as this billboard."
Kilshaw said the controversy created by the billboard did not factor into the company's decision to take it down.
"We accepted the copy in accordance with our policy," Kilshaw said. "We believe in people's right to advertise, [we] thought it [the copy] was OK, [and] we stand behind that decision," Kilshaw said.
